I stared at the woman’s back and felt she looked familiar like I had seen her before. I wanted to catch up with her but she had already disappeared around the corner. The others hurried me so I moved ahead.
Captain Zhao said a few more words with the chief nurse. The chief nurse looked tired. Whenever we returned, we would always bring problems with us, but he knew it couldn’t be helped.
Guan Zhenglin responded. “Okay, come find us when you’re done. After all, Doggie Wang Er is your dog, no, I didn’t mean it that way. Aiz, you know what I mean.”
I shrugged, “I understand. I don’t think he minds either since Doggie Wang Er believes he’s a dog, the world’s most obedient and greatest dog. That’s a compliment for him.”
Guan Zhenglin shook her head and sighed, “Doggie Wang Er is a good man, but this happened to him. Then again, tomb-raiding is punishable by death so he has survived because of this illness too. So sometimes, it’s hard to tell what good fortune is.”
I smiled. “At least Doggie Wang Er is happy now. He has forgotten about being betrayed by his father and killing him.”
I pointed at the mental patients around us. Some of them were squatting, others screaming. There were some laughing, others crying. “Look at these people, for the conventional society, they are crazy. However they are happy, at least happier than before they became crazy. If they were happy back then, they wouldn’t be crazy. Perhaps this is a kind of blessing.”
After we parted, I went to find Doggie Wang Er. When I found him, Doggie Wang Er was curling under the sun like a dog. I saw a large lipstick print on his face, that was left behind by his lover. Honestly, his life was not bad, he was happy and loved. Before I even got near, Doggie Wang Er suddenly sat up. He looked around like a dog before he finally spotted me. The joy was clear on his face. He barked as he ran towards me. “Master, you came to visit me!” Doggie Wang Er licked my hand and said.
I nodded and ruffled his head. “How are you doing?”
Doggie Wang Er wagged his tongue. “I’m good. I’m well-fed and I have a lot of people to play with. But sometimes, I miss master. You have to come visit me more often, okay?”
Seeing him, my heart warmed. Perhaps in this world, being a dog was happier than being a human. Humans might be at the top of the food chain, they might understand all the other animals, their body structure and habits, but they could never tell what the human sitting across from them was thinking. They might not even know what they were thinking themselves.
I accompanied Doggie Wang Er and then played fetch with him. When the sky darkened, I had to leave.
When I arrived at the station, everyone was there. Xiao Liu was still in the meeting room waiting for me. As I walked in, Xiao Liu said, “Wu Meng, you’re back. We found some clues.”
“Hmm?” I looked at him. “What clues?”
Xiao Liu handed me a file and said, “I found the man who was seen leaving with the sex toy store boss. The man is still alive. The man paid the woman for her service, their relationship was strictly professional. The man said he dropped the woman off at the shop after their last transaction. He dropped her in the alley near her shop and then…”
“And then what?” I prompted.
Xiao Liu looked at me and said with an expression of disbelief and fear. “The boss didn’t get into the shop. The man blinked and she disappeared. The man said she was walking towards the shop and then she just disappeared like that…”
That was indeed curious. “What else?”
Xiao Liu continued, “Based on DNA analysis, the bones brought back from the store did belong to the female boss and her time of death was at night 23 days ago. In other words, when the man blinked, she probably died.”
“What about her cause of death?” I asked.
Xiao Liu swallowed his saliva. “That’s the problem. Based on doctor Zhang Qinrui’s report, the woman died from having her air pipe gnashed apart by human teeth. This meant that we have her killer’s DNA. However, we have nothing to compare it to.”
An image appeared in my mind. One dark night, after the business was completed between the man and woman, the man sent the woman home. The alley was too narrow for the man’s car so he parked outside. The woman was afraid so the man promised to wait at the alley mouth until she entered the shop. The man felt itchiness in his eyes so he rubbed them, but when he raised his head, the woman had already disappeared.
The man was confused. When he last checked, the woman was still far from her shop. He only took several seconds to rub his eyes, the woman couldn’t cross the distance so fast. However, since their relationship was strictly business, the man didn’t care. He didn’t call her. He turned and left. The alley became darker.
But at that moment, the woman was pressed against the wall and she struggled nonstop. She was very afraid and hoped to make some noise but it was pointless. Someone was biting hard on her throat. The sharp teeth bit through her neck and snapped her air pipe. She opened her mouth and she could feel the air leaking out from her neck.
Then the woman slowly died. The killer used her key to enter her shop and came to the storeroom. He dismembered the woman in the hidden tunnel, cutting her flesh into pieces. Then she was fed to the stray cats. It was how the cats got acclimatized to eating human flesh.
At the start, the strays were guarded around the killer. But as days passed, the strays finally accepted him. The strays could eat, play around the man, they treated him as one of them. Then the killer wrote down his second story.
“Is the man a suspect?” I asked.
Xiao Liu shook his head. “The man has a solid alibi. He’s the ceo of a big company, he has literally thousands of witnesses. He has no chance to commit the crimes. However, our records did show that he had called the woman several times after her death.” After a pause, Xiao Liu continued, “But all his calls went unanswered so he went to the shop to find her. He visited multiple times and she was always not there. But there was one time where the boss saw a woman walk out from the shop. The man stopped her to ask about his ‘business’ partner. The woman said that the previous boss had retired and gone back home. She just bought the shop.”
I nodded and signalled for Xiao Liu to continue. Xiao Liu flipped through the document. “The man didn’t suspect anything. After all, this happened quite a lot. The man assumed the woman had found a better partner and moved on. However, we did get a description of the woman who supposedly took over the shop from the man.”
My eyes glowed. “Show me.”
Xiao Liu handed me a portrait. “This is an artist’s impression of the woman.” As I studied the picture, Xiao Liu continued, “The woman wore black and had on a cap. She is around 1.8 metres with flats. She had on light make-up and to quote the male ceo, she looked innocent. Based on age, he said she was probably 18.” Xiao Liu paused before adding, “The CEO said the woman’s cheeks were flushed and her teeth were white. She had black eyeliner and her eyes were black and shiny. She had a small nose and pink lips. She had short hair and bangs. Due to the warming weather, she didn’t have many layers and he believes she has a B cup.”
“B Cup?” I repeated, “He can tell that?”
Xiao Liu nodded. “Based on what the ceo said, he is a rich second generation. He has been surrounded by women since he was 14. He claimed that as long as the object is female, he would be able to tell their bra size even through clothes…”
I sighed. “That doesn’t sound that reliable.”
Xiao Liu shook his head and said seriously, “I triple-checked with the boss, stressing the severity of the case and he didn’t look like he was toying with me.”
“Then we have a problem!” I tapped on the table.
Xiao Liu nodded and sighed. “You’re right. If this is the killer, then she is a woman. Then how does that explain the semen-stained bedsheets? Is the killer male or female? Or is there more than one killer?”
I held my chin. “Not sure, but this case is looking even more complicated. Also one more thing, if the female boss died 23 days ago, that means that the killer didn’t kill entirely according to the order of the published stories. They might strike in between stories.”
Then I pushed my hand into my pockets to think. At that moment, I discovered a piece of paper in it. I didn’t remember putting a paper in it. I took it out and saw a line of sentences.
I recognized the handwriting.
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